Yes, I am sucked into making windmill tablerunners - they are so easy with that little template. I have one of the striped fabrics for binding and one of the darker orange slice fabrics for the back - this baby is for MY dining room table!
I have a holiday charmpack I need to work up next...

This morning I was up bright and early and, having finished the windmill top last night, wanted to finally get some quilting in. I picked the easiest looking piece and spraybasted (with 505) the 3 layers together and got to quilting. My fuzzy little quality control officer also showed up for work...it's been a long time since he sat with me so I enjoyed his company as much, if not more, than getting back into quilting.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

2008 was the Town of Castile Bicentennial Celebration, of which my mother was chair as the Town Clerk. Luckily there was money left over after a year of festivities so with more donations and dad as a playground committee of one, they were able to purchase a new playground for the Village Park. With installation costs we are looking at a $20,000 investment in the Town and oohs and ahhs from the little ones makes it all worth it!

We installed the playground with (mostly) volunteer efforts last Thursday and Friday and I took both days off to help - the entire family was there. What was to have been a three day project was completed in less than two thanks to the many volunteers who labored in the gorgeous weather.

(the village DPW studies the blueprints after the auger cut the electic lines, cutting all power to the park)

Ty came to the park after am pre-school so he got to be first down the big slide.

Ry kept saying "open?" since he has to wait until the playground is officially opened Monday. In the meantime, he built a stick farm in the horseshoe pit. Good improvise, little man!

Saturday was spent watching Ty's t-ball game (they won!) and Sunday was spent outdoors getting the rest of the veggies planted and mowing and mulching and...and...and... in the yard before grilling sausages. 4 days of perfect hi-70s weather made it hard to come back to work today.

Oh BTW - did you hear about the 1936 wheat penny dug up in my veggie garden or the deer that ran thru my (village) yard?

Monday, May 17, 2010

Looking for something mindless to work on yesterday while I moped around the house...I decided to finish this little windmill table runner that I had started in order to play with my new Little Twister template (of course I can't find the website at this moment but it was $8.95 with free shipping).

I had the 40 charm squares already sewn together and only needed to add the brown border. Once that was done, you place the lines of the template on the seam intersections as above and slightly twist each cut piece to form the first row. I wasn't sewing at any great pace but the top is done and I think I have the back/binding picked out. Mom thinks it needs another border but she also thinks it would look nice in her redecorated kitchen!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Does reading about quilts count as quilting?
When I finally got home last night Tula wanted to go out to the porch so I grabbed the nearest library book. It was a little chilly so we didn't stay long but I was into the book enuf so that when I finally cobbled dinner together and made a batch of granola bars, I snuggled on the loveseat under a quilt and read until bedtime. This morning her furiness wanted out again so, in my pjs and bathrobe, we read on the porch until I had to get ready for work. I don't think Tula feels well since she isn't scarfing her food up as usual so I am happy to indulger her.

You can see in the picture that it was 59 degrees this morning and quite humid - it was perfect. The one inch strips are from my OMG quilt - it's a good no brainer project to sew strips together into teeny-tiny 9patches when my brain can't seem to get in gear for anything else. I certainly hope it gets back in gear soon because I have borders to finish on that batik quilt top and table runners to quilt and gardens to weed and lawn to mow and plants to plant and floors to sweep and and and...

Monday, May 10, 2010

I'm afraid I just don't have a lot to show in the quilting department. I was at a conference for 4 days in Saratoga Springs, another 1 day conference in Houghton, hosted Mom's Bday brunch at my house and brought brunch to her house for Mom's Day. Plus the volunteer group meetings, cleaning, gardening and working (that last one always gets in the way of everything) that should be done. And can you believe that Castile had 29 rescue calls in the month of April? I didn't go on half of them but it still felt like a lot.

This quilt, made with batik charms purchased in NC while moving back from FL to NY, is almost done. The center and first border is done. I am piecing a simple 2nd and 3rd border and may add a simple 4th border when I get these done to pull it all together.

Yup - we had snow on Mother's Day! Welcome to the weather in WNY. The frost warnings continue tonight. The snow was part of a cold front that passed thru on Saturday. The winds were gusting between 60 and 70 miles per hour. 74 is hurricane strength! I had some tree damage but not as much as I expected.

This is the day before the night before Mother's Day out my front window - can you see the flakes blowing in the wind?And this is what I woke up to Sunday morning. I didn't say it was a lot of snow but, hello!, it's May 9th!Tula says "Oh no, not that cold white stuff again!"

Monday, May 03, 2010

I'm on the Library Board for the Cordelia A. Greene Libraryand knowing that I am a quilter, the Library Director (Hi Erin!) asked me to make a doll quilt for the annual tea party fundraiser that will be held this weekend. One lucky little girl will win an American Girl doll and the other girls will win smaller prizes. I hope whoever wins this quilt will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. The sun was pretty bright today so it was hard to get a good picture - imagine rich greens, blues, cream and a tiny bit of purple for splash. This is the best of a dozen kitten photos - they are adorable and quite independent plus I hear they may have a forever home soon.